Ohio, North America. The “Hopewell Interaction Sphere” flourishes, a network of communities centered on Paint Creek in Ohio. They leave behind for posterity crystal, mica, and obsidian arrowheads from the Appalachians, copper and silver from the Great Lakes, shells and shark teeth from the Gulf of Mexico, grizzly bear molars from the Rocky Mountains, meteoric iron, alligator teeth from Florida, barracuda jaws, and more. They also build enormous, regular earthworks in the shape of circles, squares, and octagons, aligned according to mathematical and cosmological principles and all made of mud, known as Earthworks, in Licking County, Ohio. It’s a lunar observatory spanning 5 square kilometers, with earthworks over 5 meters high, constructed with carefully selected layers of earth, gravel, and sand designed to last, so much so that after thousands of years they have never been absorbed by the surrounding marshes. These were small seasonal towns, abandoned for much of the year, with theaters for elaborate and crowded ceremonies lasting up to a week or two at a time. The rest of the community consisted of houses scattered across the land, mostly in the highlands, families living by hunting, fishing, foraging, and occasionally cultivating local herbaceous plants like sunflowers and vegetables. This is what is called “game farming,” found throughout much of North America. It nevertheless generated a refined culture, at times artistically brilliant: pipes topped with exquisite animal carvings, used to smoke a very strong tobacco that induced trance-like states. Small sheets of copper, worn like a breastplate, cut into complex geometric shapes, have also been found. As at Poverty Point in Louisiana, social influence derived from control over esoteric forms of knowledge. These are egalitarian cultures, not in the sense that everyone is the same, on the contrary, differences are exalted, free to attract attention or to obtain a visible role in society, with incredible varieties of clothes, ornaments, playful and extravagant haircuts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ohio, North America. The “Hopewell Interaction Sphere” flourishes, a network of communities centered on Paint…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-616362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vg-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n